Russian Ark DVD 2002 Orosz bárka / Directed by Alexander Sokurov / Starring: Sergei Dreiden / Русский ковчег

UPC 5996051010158

REGION 2 PAL DVD  

MADE IN EU

AUDIO: Russian 2.0 HUNGARIAN 2.0 

SUBTITLES: -

RUNTIME: 95 MINUTES

English Summary:

Russian Ark (Russian: Русский ковчег, Russkij Kovcheg) is a 2002 experimental historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. In Russian Ark, an unnamed narrator wanders through the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, and implies that he died in some horrible accident and is a ghost drifting through the palace. In each room, he encounters various real and fictional people from various periods in the city's 300-year history. He is accompanied by "the European", who represents the Marquis de Custine, a 19th-century French traveler.

On a winter's day, a small party of men and women arrive by horse-drawn carriage to a minor, side entrance of the Winter Palace, dressed in the style of the early 19th century to attend a ball hosted by the Emperor Alexander I. The narrator (whose point of view is always in first-person) meets another spectral but visible outsider, "the European", and follows him through numerous rooms of the palace. "The European", a 19th-century French diplomat who appears to be the Marquis de Custine, has nothing but contempt for Russians; he tells the narrator that they are unable to create or appreciate beauty as Europeans do, as demonstrated by the European treasures around him. Each room manifests a different period of Russian history, although the periods are not in chronological order.

Featured are Peter the Great harassing and striking one of his generals; a spectacular presentation of operas and plays in the era of Catherine the Great; an imperial audience in which Tsar Nicholas I is offered a formal apology by the Shah of Iran for the death of ambassador Alexander Griboedov in 1829; the idyllic family life of Tsar Nicholas II's children; the ceremonial changing of the various regiments of the Imperial Guard; people touring the palace in the present; the museum's director whispering the need to make repairs during the rule of Joseph Stalin; and a desperate Leningrader making his own coffin during the 900-day siege of the city during World War II.

Hungarian Summary:

Egy kortárs orosz filmrendező váratlanul a szentpétervári Ermitázsban találja magát, ráadásul a XVII. században. Egy francia diplomata társaságában különböző korszakokba cseppen, és mielőtt a viharos események és a sors csavarai visszaengednék a jelenbe, kísérőjével bepillanthatnak az orosz birodalmat egykor markukban tartó uralkodók életébe. Miközben a két férfi szenvedélyesen vitatja meg a látottakat, az egyetlen beállításban, vágás nélkül felvett, elsöprő erejű jelenetekben cárok és cárnék vonulnak végig. A francia diplomata lenézi ugyan az orosz civilizációt, de azért gyakran kimutatja a titokzatos és egzotikus ország iránt érzett csodálatát is. A filmrendező szavaiban pedig az a megosztottság tükröződik, amivel az orosz emberek az európai kultúrát egyszerre elfogadják és elutasítják.

Cast / Szereplők:

• Alexander Sokurov as Narrator
• Sergei Dontsov (Sergey Dreyden) as the European (Marquis de Custine)
• Mariya Kuznetsova as Catherine the Great
• Marksim Sergeyev as Peter the Great
• Anna Aleksakhina as Alexandra Feodorovna
• Vladimir Baranov as Nicholas II